


The Queen of Spades

by Tigerlillyruiz



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:42:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26502334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tigerlillyruiz/pseuds/Tigerlillyruiz
Summary: It is in the past where we became our current selves, and in the present where we create our future selves. It is okay to think about the past, to remember it, but if we live in it, we eliminate our future selves. So, only visit the past, learn from it, rejoice in it, heal from it, but don’t dwell on it. Live in the present and look towards the future. That is where you’ll Thrive.
Relationships: Chloe Frazer/Nadine Ross
Kudos: 23





	1. The Job

**Author's Note:**

> I'm getting back into writing so please let me know what you think. I had wanted to do something for Chlodine week, however, I was unable to meet the deadline. Although I did get inspired by the prompt 'The Past' and this is the result. The first chapter of it anyway. Please send a like or leave a comment if you think I should continue or you just want to say HI . BD

Questions. At the beginning of any type of relationship, it is only natural to want to get to know the other person. Inevitably that curiosity and thirst for knowledge leads to one thing… Inquiries, in other words, Questions... Lots and lots of questions. And, when you care for someone and wish for something more than friendship, that curiosity and hunger only multiply tenfold. So, you ask...Questions. And that is how it all started, with a question… well that, a girl, and a job…

The fateful job in question was going very well so far. Chloe and Nadine had been contracted by a sweet old couple that Nadine had found. The couple hadn’t searched them out or posted any job offers on any sites, instead, Nadine had seen a small news clipping about them and their situation. The artifact that they were currently trying to recover was a family heirloom that had been in the client’s family for so long that it had even survived through the holocaust, but it had been stolen from them. The couple had tried to take things the legal way but since the stolen piece was so old that they didn’t have any proper documents or proof of ownership other than an ancient photograph of an ancestor with it, and it wasn’t enough to get it back. Nadine had talked to Chloe afterward and had immediately jumped on board in making this their next job and together they had sought them out in an attempt to help. The reward wasn’t at all a significant figure, but the stolen treasure was said to be in the possession of a man who had obtained countless other priceless artifacts, each and everyone taken by force from their true owners over many years. After finding that out, Chloe and Nadine decided that relieving the man of a few antiquities putting them on the market, and returning to the adorable old couple with what was taken from them was the right course of action to take.

Right now Chloe sighed out in relief as she looked herself over in the bathroom mirror as she prepared to tie up her hair into her signature ponytail for what she was about to do. She rather liked the way she looked tonight. Her grey eyes really stood out after having applied a winged eyeliner with a simple light peach and pink eyeshadow that looked natural and not heavy or caked on. On her lips, she wore a lipstick that was a dark dirty red with undertones of brown. It wasn’t bright but it was still red. She wanted a pop of her signature color since she was stuck wearing black for Jergen Bushea’s black and white tie lavish get together, not that she wasn’t wearing the hell out of the backless number she was wearing, but she would have preferred to wear her red dress.

She bit her lip as she tied her hair. She couldn’t wait to get back home and out of this dress. The look Nadine had given her had sent a delicious shiver down her spine, and she herself wanted to get Nadine out of her Bartender’s outfit and finally let Nadine taste her. Unconsciously she rubbed at her left ear then shook her head. 

First things first, she had to slip out of the lady’s room in this man’s mansion of a house and finish the job while Nadine kept an eye on all the guests and security as she served drinks behind the counter in the ballroom where the event was being held. She was glad she was alone now and not being asked to dance or flirted with by the countless men, and a few women, on the dance floor, because she was already taken not to mention her feet were killing her in the heels she was wearing. She looked down at her shoes in annoyance, she’d have to take them off before she left the lay’s room and attempted to knick the couple’s prized possession. No longer wasting any time, she quickly slid down to the floor and started by removing the buckle on the outer side of her ankle followed by removing her left shoe. Then she turned her right leg and paused to caress the newly acquired soul mark on her outer right ankle.

Since her mark had appeared a little over a month ago, it had never failed to make her smile. The mark itself was the color of a freckle and looked as if it were a henna tattoo. It was a reminder of the love that started to bloom between them on their first mission together in India nearly seven months ago. As a whole, it looked like a heart. On the left half was a profile of an Indian elephant head with its trunk extended down and the tusk of Ganesh under its ear and around its jaw. On the right half was the profile of a monkey facing the elephant with its tail curled to create the other hump of the heart with the word ‘Love’ making the point at the bottom starting at the elephant trunk and going along the beginning of the monkey’s tail, and in between everything is a smaller solid heart. Chloe still couldn’t believe she’d gotten so lucky. Nadine was the perfect woman and the matching mark, that had appeared under her left palm on her wrist, proved that they were both made for each other and no one else. She loved her mark and she loved her Nadine even more so. Smiling she removed her shoe stood up and left the bathroom with her high heels in hand. 

As Chloe was making her way through the long hall to get to the lower level of the giant house, her earpiece came to life. 

“Chloe you there?” Nadine asked in a hushed tone. 

“Yeah China, I’m here. How’s it looking out there” She asked in reply as she continued walking.

“Everything is good here” Nadine replied looking around the room.”All the security we’ve seen during our steak outs are all here, and accounted for, with the guests making sure they don’t take anything that is on display in here, not that that stopped you” She laughed, as she started cleaning a dirty glass that was left on the drink bar’s counter. “Anyway, what’s your status on what we’re actually here for?” 

Chloe’s frame relaxed as she stopped hugging the wall and taking measured steps “Well now that I know there’s no one to worry about it shouldn’t take me so long, I just have to get down the stairs and pick the lock then I can knick the item then we can leave” she answered as she took the stairs down. 

“Okay, that sounds good, but with one modification I’m going to stay and finish my shift here so I don’t arouse any suspicion” she countered.

“Nadine I don’t feel comfortable leaving you a-” She was interrupted cutting her off as her earpiece sounded again

“Excuse me I’d like a Negroni and make it a double,” Said a voice that dripped of life long privilege and entitlement.

“Yes sir, coming right up.” Nadine turned around at the bar finishing their conversation as she grabbed the gin, the Campari, and the sweet vermouth. “Get what you need and get out Chloe. I’ll meet you back at our motel room with the duffel. I’ll be fine.”She declared in a swift hushed tone, concluding their conversation by turning off the piece in her ear.

“Nadine?...Nadine…? China?...aaaand she turned off her earpiece… aaaand now I’m talking to myself” She sighed as she turned off and remover the now useless device pulled out her lock picking set and got to work on the door to the left at the bottom of the stairs. “If anything happens...Stubborn dic-” The door’s lock gave way there we go,” she said triumphantly as she let herself into the man’s office room and closed the door. 

Turning around, she finally got her first look at the old couple’s treasure, and what a treasure it was. Right on top of the desk in front of her was a beautiful necklace. Seventeenth-century in design if she wasn’t mistaken. It was beautiful. The centerpiece was a round ruby surrounded by small diamonds and surrounding the diamonds there was there were pieces of gold filigree that made the centerpiece as a whole look like a flower. Hanging from the centerpiece there were three smaller rubies and each had a single pearl held under them. The middle a black pearl, and the two outer ones both a white pearl. Holding it all together were two strings each a combination of small rubies, regular pearls, and black pearls. It was definitely her kind of necklace, and she appreciated its history, where it had been, all it had seen, and everything its previous owners had been through. With the necklace now in hand, she slipped it into her dress’s hidden pocket and slowly left the room. Closing the door behind her, she looked up to make sure the security camera was still angled to see further into the hallway and not Jergen’s office door like she had placed it earlier. 

She was just going to head back up the stairs when she heard a door behind her open. “Shit” Jergen must have hired more security for the night, which actually made a lot of sense.

“Hey what are you doing down here?” the henchman asked grabbing her shoulder from behind.

She did the only thing she could think of. She held up her shoes higher, hiccuped, and prepared to slur her words. * hiccup * “ I neeeed to * hiccup * use the toilet” she replied. 

He didn’t buy it. “You’re going to have to come with me,” He said grabbing her arm and twisting it hard behind her back. 

She was officially blown. Using her other arm, she elbowed him in the solar plexus making him let her go, then turned and kicked him into the hallway table. Thinking she had him down and out, she turned to hurry up the stairs and leave when pain exploded through her head. She fell like a ton of bricks. The last thing she remembered before she blacked out was seeing that goon standing above her with the broken leg of the end table in his hands. “Na..dine…


	2. A Job's End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! and Happy Holidays!!  
> To all the Chodine fans out there, here is a gift from me to you.  
> I'm sorry it has taken so long but it gets a bit discouraging when there aren't that many fans left in the fandom. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well this time of year, and every day.  
> Please let me know what you think.

It had been a little over an hour since Nadine had turned off her earpiece and ended her conversation with Chloe. She did feel bad about doing that but she just wanted her Chloe safe and out of harm's way. Not to mention that her soulmate had this infuriating yet endearing knack for talking your ear off for hours on end and always seemed to get her way. She’d even seen Chloe talk a man into giving them a new car free of charge on one of their adventures, so it was best to just end the conversation and not give her another option. She could feel in her bones that Chloe was feeling hurt, but she’d apologize to her later.

Looking out past the bar she noticed one of the security men whispering something unpleasant if the new frown was anything to go by, in Mr. Jergen’s ear and then watched them both walk off in the direction Chloe had gone.

“It’s a good thing she already left before they discovered that necklace missing “ she sighed in relief. Though something in her was nagging at her. Looking at her watch, she suppressed a sigh of a different nature. She still had another hour left on the clock before she could end her shift and leave. “  _ At least some of these people tip well,” _ she thought as she glanced at the tip jar on the counter, making eye contact with President Jackson. Closing her eyes she focused on her new yet developing connection with Chloe and though there was pain and hurt, the loudest thing she could feel was an overwhelming sense of cockiness and pride in the mix she felt but everything was hazy. Nadine smiled to herself “ _ yeah that’s definitely my Chloe, always cocky about something  _ ” she hadn’t really mastered their connection yet but she was a fast learner so she wasn’t worried about it that haziness, everything would become clear in time.“ _ probably just celebrating our score. Or maybe it’s something else. I wonder what she’s up to all alone in our room?” _

Chloe groaned as she sluggishly opened her eyes for the second time since she first got hit in the head. Last time she was over the henchman’s shoulder, and now she was tied to a chair with a bag over her head.  _ “ how long has it been?”  _ She wondered.  _ “, and why does my ear feel like it’s wet?”  _ Everything felt a little muddled right now, and her head was killing her. 

The night hadn’t gone at all as she’d planned. She tried to focus but try as she might she couldn’t see anything past what was on her head. She could however hear something,“ how did you all lose it?! I gave you one job!” She recognized that voice, it was Jergen.

“ We think we caught the culprit. She was standing by your office door when we found her, although your office door was still locked when we tried to enter it. After we used the key though we saw the necklace was missing.” 

Chloe smiled to herself, she knew taking those extra few seconds to relock the door on her way out was a good idea.

“ you’re telling me that you attacked one of my guests without being sure that it was her! Did you blithering idiots even check the video surveillance?!” 

“We did sir, but it didn’t show anything useful, it was angled away from your office door.”

“ ugh! You all have made such a mess of this. Let’s see if we can sort this all out, shall we? Is she awake?”

“No sir, not yet.”

Chloe closed her eyes, right on time, before the bag was ripped off of her head.

“Oh it’s her, I was wondering what was taking her so long, you all attacked her. She told me she was going to go find a restroom.”

Chloe felt a hand turn her head to the left and to the right to see all the damage that was done.

“She’s bleeding pretty badly.” He finally said.” What did she say when you found her outside my office door?”

For a moment there was an uncomfortable silence between them” well… umm that’s what she said sir, she had her shoes in her hands and she said she had to pee sir” 

“ you insufferable driveling fool! Did she even have it on her person?!” Again there was a pregnant pause before a quiet “no” was heard. “ How… Are you... Do you have any idea what you have done?!” He seethed. “Everyone out there is at the pinnacle of aristocracy, and you’re telling me that on top of hurting one of my guests, one who is royalty by blood, literally born a lady, someone that I was conversing with and whom I personally invited no less, that you lost the necklace that I just acquired?!” 

Chloe was sure he was practically foaming at the mouth right now. It seemed as though using the alias he had spent years cultivating since before she even knew what the term grifter meant, was the proper choice. She had everyone in the royal family believing she was part of the family and was invited to many of their personal family events. The ever-elusive Lady Elizabeth was even in a few of their wills and was constantly moved when she came out of hiding. 

With regret in his voice, the security guard replied “ it appears so sir” 

“Of all the... Fine!. What’s done is done. I’ll fix it. Untie her and let’s see what’s what” he ordered.

Just like that Chloe was released. Again she felt a hand on her face” can you hear me?” He paused awaiting a response.” Lady Elizabeth are you okay?”

Chloe chose that moment to ‘stir awake’ and groaned. Using a slur, that she didn’t really have to fake, she said “wh.. what happened?”

Fake apology and actually worry written on his face he replied” I’m sorry my Lady” Jergen crouched down in front of her” but it seems as though we’ve had a bit of a burglary her tonight, and it seems as though you got fought in the crossfire and my security team got a bit overzealous. However, maybe you can help us. Tell me, what were you doing downstairs?” He asked all too sweetly.

Chloe knew he was trying to manipulate her in some way with the way he was talking to her, which way, well she was still fuzzy on. One thing she didn’t have to think about though was how to play her cards. “ I assked some’ne where the restroom was.” She paused covering her mouth. She really didn’t feel well. “ mmm don’t feel good” 

He snapped his fingers in her face clearly irritated and losing his patience. “Focus! Now finish your sentence “ he ordered.

“He said down n’ to the left, but it was locked… my head hurts” 

Still, he was persistent “ tell me, did you see anything? Anyone?” 

Chloe made a show of squinting around for her target then made her eyes go wide. She pointed and stuttered playing on the man’s chauvinistic side and leaned into Bushea’s embrace pretending to cower into him.” H...h...him h..he was c...coming out of something and put somewhere in his pocket and then he attacked me! Please don’t let him near me. I didn’t bring any of my men to protect me here.” 

Jergen’s head whipped around and shot an accusatory glare at the wide-eyed guard who had hit her earlier. She definitely had Mr. Bushes hook line and sinker now. “you!”

“Sir I didn’t”

“Then you should have no problem emptying your pockets “ but the lacky was too stunned to comply, so Jergen pointed to the two men guarding the door that Chloe hadn’t seen before now. “ you two! Search him!”

Chloe watched with hidden amusement, as the man’s eyes bulged further, as the missing necklace was pulled out of his back pocket.

“ You!.. it was you all along! And you hurt one of my guests just to get away with it. A Lady would never steal” he accused, as he pocketed the old couple’s treasure for himself. 

Chloe’s body chose that moment to expel its contents all over the floor. She hadn’t planned that, but used it as an excuse to ‘stumble’ further into Jergen’s arms and reacquire the necklace “ mm sorry... I don’t feel good” 

He steadied her, faux valiantly, at his side and lead them out the door, calling out “ take care of it” as they left the room.

Once they were in the hallway he apologized. “ I am so sorry Lady Elizabeth, but it seems like you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, I promise to take full responsibility. Here…” he continued, pulling out his wallet and handing her a large stack of hundreds. “This should pay for the hospital bill, and I’ll have a man of my staff drive you there. Just do me a favor and leave my name out of this. If word were to get out, that my guests were getting attacked, I’d be a ruined man” 

_ “ so this is what he wanted from me”  _ this was her chance “ okay. I I can see it it wasn’t you, but after having that man attack me, I” she squeezed his arm” I just don’t want to be alone with a man, e especially not l like this m maybe the the girl at the bar, she seemed nice, please” 

He gave her his best impression of sympathy” yes yes of course my dear, and again I am so sorry. Let’s just slip into the kitchen so that we don’t alarm any of the other guests, and I’ll have someone fetch the barkeep. I’ll explain the whole situation to her okay and she’ll get you looked after” he concluded, pushing her in the direction he wanted. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, I have more on the way!!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading !!! Let me know what you think. BD


End file.
